Early start
Got Mario Kart 8 on Thursday and it’s fricken awesome! Please add me on Nintendo Network as I have no friends on there and I can’t think of a better bunch of people to race with than the GC massive!

Rangersingh (NN ID)

Thank you ShopTo, I get a whole night of karting goodness a day early! What a lovely surprise to get home to! Any GCers wanting some online fun please add me.SteJFin (NN ID)
PS: I know David Beckham will put his name to anything if it brings him more publicity, but I’m surprised Bethesda were able to get him on the poster for BattleCry. Didn’t even know he was into online shooters!

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Playing catch-up
Having not owned a Nintendo home console since the Nintendo 64 and with the Nintendo love building up in the Inbox due to Mario Kart 8 I decided to purchase a Wii to catch up on classic titles. I got one for £58 from eBay with Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Metroid Prime 3, Resident Evil remake, and a Wii Remote Plus included.

So if Nintendo do release a few more must have titles for the Wii U besides Mario Kart 8 I can upgrade knowing the actual console only cost peanuts. I also ordered Metroid Prime and a new copy of Sin & Punishment: Successor Of The Skies. Where I find the time to play all these is another matter, I seem to spend more time reading about games and buying them than actually playing them now.

While browsing the Wii eShop I noticed they have Super Metroid and Super Mario World available for purchase, though strangely there still don’t seem to be any SNES games on the 3DS eShop. Have Nintendo ever mentioned why they don’t have SNES games on the eShop?

On another note, with all the talk in the Inbox and Underbox about not having a decent gaming TV show I thought I’d mention the Yogscast YouTube channel. Along with the usual playthrough videos they do some videos previewing new games and looking at a few indie gems. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem likely that there will be a decent gaming TV show again with knowledgeable presenters, though a regular show hosted by Charlie Brooker would be great.Mr Bump

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GC: The logic behind how Nintendo handles the Virtual Console is unfathomable, even by their normal standards.

Exception to the rule
Please may I say what a wonderful gaming experience I am having on Final Fantasy XIV on the PlayStation 4. Even though I adore role-playing games, as a rule, I hate MMOs. They’re tedious, dull, nerdy and boring. I even disliked Final Fantasy XI on the Xbox 360. However, Final Fantasy XIV seems different. It is almost aimed with a single-player in mind.

Admittedly, the large majority of quests are kill, fetch and find quests, however, never has a MMO been done with such class, and quality. The sound and graphics are outstanding, and the game world is massive. Overall, a fantastic game for any role-playing fan. Did I miss your review GC? What did you think of the PlayStation 4 version?Dark Anima X (gamertag/NNID/PSN ID)

GC: We never review MMOs. Like you we don’t generally like them, but it’s really the length of time needed to play them properly that stops us. Although we’ve heard nothing but good things about Final Fantasy XIV.

Losing the niche
I just thought I’d give you some kudos on posting a few of the gripes people have with the industry. The amalgamation of genres and the delusions that devs and marketing teams have regarding sales expectations has begun a huge trend of games becoming increasingly more expensive; thus driving the market for niche games/genres away from the industry.

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Personally, a great example would be the new Thief game: essentially a completely niche genre of game that was marketed to the masses and sold poorly. The market is changing and sales expectation will continue to grow but does that not hurt games that aren’t going to be played by the masses, no matter how much money is thrown at them?

I suppose my point is that monetary success drives the market and somehow the gaming world has decided that there are no more titles that may only sell a few hundred thousand or even just a million copies. This would be viewed as a failure and in turn it will drive the industry into only putting out small indie games or these large, big budget games that all play the same on some level.

Financial success does not always mean gamer happiness but as far as sales are concerned the industry is doing incredibly well! How many people blindly buy games only to find that they are far from what was marketed to them?

Consumers need to be more informed with their spending.Daniel Stamhuis

The smooth generation
I just want to say before I get into it, I’ve been a fan of your collective work since the good old Teletext days. How I miss those simpler times. Anyway, just wanted to add to the comments around disappointing next gen graphics. Lets be honest for a second, Watch Dogs was never going to look as good as it did in the E3 trailers. Almost no console game I’ve ever played has looked as good as they do in screenshots and marketing videos.

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Over the last few years I think I’ve become hard to impress. I recently started inFamous: Second Son and I have to say, visually it doesn’t do a lot for me. It does however have some clear advantages over previous games in the series, first of all, it’s very sharp, the resolution makes a massive difference compared to most PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 games. Secondly it runs smooth as silk. To me that’s where the real differences are between this and the last gen.

Hopefully the relatively small generational increase in performance and fidelity will force console devs to focus more on unique gameplay features and new and interesting genres, instead of trying to increase random bald grunt’s polygon count in Call Of Duty 25: Medieval War Fair. Or they’ll just delay every game until 2020 when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Two come out.BJRMonkeyButler (PSN ID)/Monkey_Butler (Steam ID)
Currently playing: Gran Turismo 6 (PS3), inFamous: Second Son (PS4), Brutal Doom V19 (PC), and Titanfall

Breaking the X-Men
Having played every Mario Kart up to the Wii version (I decided that I was too familiar with it and never got into it) I have succumbed to the excitement on Inbox and pre-ordered it (No comments please based on the last few days.). Add me to be sure of getting a few wins under your belt.

Any chance of a Hot Topic about breaking the fourth wall in games? We all know about Metal Gear Solid but I remember being stuck playing X-Men on the Mega Drive trying to reset the master computer. Only got past it when my mate supposedly pressed the reset button on the console in frustration. I still think he checked a magazine though.

Anyway, ready, steady, go.Cwmonkey (NN ID)

GC: We’re not sure there are enough examples for a Hot Topic, but that’s a good one. We’ve never heard of that before.

Wrong colour
Sadly I agree with your most recent review of The Wolf Among Us – it was very disappointing compared to the previous three episodes. Just want to correct you on one point however – Bluebeard is not a pirate! He’s a serial killer of his wives, hence the reason why he was a major suspect in the beheadings.Steve S
PS: Excellent review of Wolfenstein: The New Order – made it a day one purchase and enjoyed every minute of it!

GC: Oh. Well, we have lived and learned. It is a shame about The Wolf Among Us though. We hope it ends well, because we’ve really grown to like the characters.

1) I drove into a haystack and it blew my car up.
2) Most buildings look terrible with the fake window displays.
3) I got put in a dunce lobby due to blowing cars up BUT GTA first games was based on blowing cars up and killing now it’s bad to do it online, **** OFF ROCKSTAR.
5) Fake promises.
6) You bunch of **** call yourself gamers, yeah ******* right. You have no idea what the **** you’re talking about.
7) Have you played Watch Dogs longer than an hour? Story is amazing, gameplay is awesome.
8) Watch Dogs said it was showing it on PC so shut up *****.hedges1994

GC: We think you might need a bit of a lay down. They’re just video games you know.

Get ready
Can you put this in both the evening Inbox on Thursday 29th and the morning Inbox of Friday 30th May please.

I’ve been trying to collate a list of Underbox inhabitants Nintendo Network ID’s (NN ID) ready for Mario Kart 8. As we are nearly there I’m posting the current list in the comments below, please add yourself to the list if you wanna go head-to-head.

If you don’t want to post your ID publicly and just want to send a friend request out on your Wii U, that’s fine too, but please state you’re from GC/Metro Underbox as I’m currently refusing everyone else because of the number I’ve received lately.Steanti (NN ID)

Inbox also-rans
I have set up the GC Cup on Mario Kart 8 exclusively for GCers, code required to enter: 6506-2268-7852, all welcome! See you on the starting grid!HighFlyingBird (NN ID)

Can I ask people to add me for some Mario Kart multiplayer. Thanks.uneasy knave (gamertag)/Uneasy072 (PSN ID/NN ID)

This week’s Hot Topic
The talking point for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Bolo31, who asks what kind of video game you’d make if you had the money and expertise?

Your idea can’t be a sequel or be based on a licence, although being inspired by existing games or concepts is fine. Also, try not to go too big budget and crazy – no ‘everything simulators’ – just describe a game idea that you’d like to see made and which you think could be created with a reasonably sized budget.

Have you actually ever tried to make a game, or at least design one in your head? How aware are you of how the process works and how involved have you got with creating in-game user content or fan mods? Has playing games given you the urge to create them or would you rather just play them and not be bothered with creating them yourself?